Talking Sport: Football stars refuse to sign off quietly

Trevor Watson

You can’t accuse football of going out quietly and the past week has underlined this.

Three young Leicester City players sent home early from Thailand for some sick conduct with women, which they proudly photographed and sent to friends, a punch-up, three sent off and a pitch invasion after the Motherwell-Rangers play-off in Scotland and England star Jack Wilshere singing foul-mouthed songs about rivals Spurs in front of thousands at Arsenal’s FA Cup victory parade.

And that’s before you even start talking about the bribes at FIFA, who carry on regardless.

So far as Leicester is concerned you wonder where the old pros are these days, who used to cuff a lad’s ear if he got silly.

The idiotic trio should be given ‘jankers’ and made to do such jobs as clean boots, dressing rooms and toilets because it’s unlikely they’ll be sacked.

The Motherwell scrap must be the first time that Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t promptly voiced her opinion, perhaps even she was frightened off.

In a country where a dog is voted the best talent on TV, it’s perhaps no surprise that Wilshere was - and might still be - regarded as a future England captain, despite his record of being pictured drinking, smoking and with something called a shisha pipe, which I don’t think is used for plumbing, and he’s already been warned about previous conduct by the club.

Arsenal outclassed Villa at Wembley but little of it was to do with Wilshere who played the last 13 minutes. He should have kept quiet.

There was the inevitable fuss with Sanchez scoring a ‘wonder goal’ according to some papers while another had Walcott scoring, yes, a ‘wonder goal’.

Wilshere then joined up with the England squad. It’s to be hoped he’s a bit more tactful in Dublin when his side play Ireland.

Cricket’s test series against New Zealand has been a breath of fresh air. The visitors attacked from the off and played with a smile, it’s a long time since we saw a team with such a welcome approach. Long may it continue, indeed their attitude might spread to players at lower levels instead of the tantrums.

Rugby league will be delighted with a Saturday attendance of over 40,000 at Newcastle United’s ground for the Magic Weekend.

Particular praise to Widnes, who produced a special jersey based on the Newcastle strip for their game against Salford and many fans wore it. They handed over a cheque for £20,000 to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation for cancer research, a great initiative by the Vikings.

Barcelona meet Juventus in the European Cup final this weekend with many expecting another football treat. But if they expect Messi, Neymar and co to run riot they could be very disappointed.

The Italian side have some bruisers so expect some crunching tackles and plenty of rolling about in agony. Football isn’t all daft.